


Consigliere

by jalapeno_jazz



Series: Madame Minister [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 10:16:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17444993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jalapeno_jazz/pseuds/jalapeno_jazz





	Consigliere

_8:00 pm - Library at Malfoy Manor_

 

Draco looked up from his book and chuckled to himself as he observed his wife and father huddled over his father’s desk. At first glance, they were such an odd pairing — the Minister for Magic and her father-in-law, the former Death Eater and right-hand man to the Dark Lord. Lucius was older now; his body had been battered by both the war and his time in prison. He was thinner and moved more slowly; he still carried himself with an air of leadership and authority, although more a shadow of a mantle than the actual thing. Draco had had to step up and take over the familial duties — including managing the family’s holdings — when his father was sent away.

Lucius Malfoy was not the man his son had grown up with and had been formed by in his earlier years, Draco thought. Well, he wasn’t entirely different, either. This man still loved to wield power from the shadows, to use his influence to attain what he wanted. What Draco _hadn’t_ expected, however, was that in the aftermath of the war, and after his release from Azkaban, Lucius would be perfectly fine using whatever influence and energy he had to help Draco’s Muggle-born wife achieve her own political ambitions.

Don’t ever let it be said that the Malfoys weren’t masters of self-preservation, he thought darkly.

 

Hermione’s actions had helped her cause, he was sure. As she rose in the ranks of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and her relationship with Draco became more permanent, she pushed to have Lucius’s sentence commuted to house arrest. It was part of a larger effort to mend the breaches within Wizarding Society, to be sure, but it also did much to solidify the esteem of her mother-in-law. Unbeknownst to either Draco or Narcissa, Hermione and Lucius had forged their own alliance during her visits with her client. Upon his release, she was the one to collect Lucius and bring him home, and they reached the gates of Malfoy Manor arm in arm.

Not much had changed since that time. Lucius served as both Hermione’s confidante and foil, showing others the dangers of intolerance within Wizarding Society as well as the grace and peace that came with forgiveness and acceptance. If Hermione Granger — the Golden Girl and war heroine who had been tortured in their very home — could make peace with the Malfoys, then surely their social stock could rise once more. Draco couldn’t care less for such things, but he knew it mattered to Narcissa. In return, Lucius had helped Hermione navigate the political machinery of the Ministry. He couldn’t take a direct role, as he once had, but she didn’t really need that, and better he stay out of the limelight anyhow. Give her the information so she would find the path on her own, and where there wasn’t a path, she could make one. His tutelage had played a large — but quiet — part in her ascent, and they knew that it would have been a much more difficult road had they not had Lucius’s subtle influence on some of the more _traditional_ members of Wizarding society.

They were an odd pairing, but for the two of them, it seemed to work. Draco watched as they went round and round on the finer points of a piece of legislation currently winding its way through the Wizengamot — equal rights for werewolves. It was controversial at best, and Hermione knew it, but she continued to push it forward. For Lupin; for Lavender; for all of Greyback’s victims. And, of course, for Teddy. A critical piece was making sure Wolfsbane potion could be procured for those who needed it, and that’s where Draco came in — his potions company making the remedy available at cost.

It was one of those instances of synchrony between their professional lives that drew criticism, but ultimately produced great benefit. The contract had been openly bid, however, Malfoy Industries was one of the few companies that had both the expertise and the equipment to produce the potion in the quantities that would be needed, if the legislation was passed as was intended. _And_ , if they were willing to produce the potion at cost — a gesture they could easily afford — there could be no question that there was any favoritism in the award of the contract. Besides, Hermione had steered clear of the entire process, not wanting any piece of this to be called into question, given her own last name was the same as that of the winning bidder.

It was a small part of a much larger effort to level the magical playing field. Today, it was werewolves; maybe it would be giants or goblins tomorrow. Hermione dreamed big, whether it was learning to understand Mermish — so she could personally ensure the inhabitants of the Black Lake, among others, were being treated fairly and with dignity — or her much earlier successful campaign to set a minimum wage for free elves and create better working conditions and pensions for House-elves who chose to not be freed. She had made her proposal early on in her tenure at the Ministry, deftly taking advantage of both the disarray of the Ministry’s structures after the war, as well as her own influence.

It was a masterful stroke — many of the older families were still untangling their dealings with the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters. She calculated they couldn’t be seen opposing the measure, even though in different times they would have railed against the thought. However, true to form, Hermione’s effort was to create room within the system, not to destroy it altogether — elves that had been treated poorly by their families were free to leave and find places to serve where they could work for wages and without punishment. As a result, House-elves were in high demand, as the historic monopoly of certain (read: pure-blood) families was broken and elves found themselves in the position to bargain for what they found was important. What that was, though, Draco still wasn’t quite sure.

 

His thoughts were disrupted as his mother came into the room clutching a sleeping child. “Draco, darling, Lyra seems to have played herself out. Are you sure you don’t want to let her sleep here?”

Draco put his book down and stood from his place on the couch to gather his daughter in his arms. Her head was full of pale blonde wild curls, some of which were now plastered to her face on one side. “Thank you, Mother, but no. I’ll get her settled at home. She has school tomorrow, so best not disrupt her routine.” He bent over to allow Narcissa to plant one last kiss on the sleeping child and glanced back at his wife and father. It appeared that neither of them had even looked up at the interruption on the other side of the room.

“Come then, I’ll walk with you to the Floo,” Narcissa said gently, patting his arm, “and I’ll make sure she doesn’t get home too late.”  

  



End file.
